The  Three  Rs 


In  my  travels  over  the  country  a great 
many  ministers  have  asked  me  for  a brief 
statement  of  the  origin  of  the  work  among 
the  colored  people  of  the  Southland,  and  also 
for  a statement  of  the  work  as  it  is  now  being 
carried  on  by  our  Presbyterian  Church.  The 
following  brief  statement  is  submitted  with 
the  prayerful  hope  that  it  may  be  useful  to 
those  who  speak  in  the  interest  of  this  great 
cause. 

JOHN  M.  GASTON 

April,  1925 
Pittsburgh,  Pa. 


OFFICERS  OF  THE  DIVISION 

REV.  JOHN  M.  GASTON,  D.D., 

Secretary  and  Assistant  Treasurer 
REV.  S.  J.  FISHER,  D.D.,  Assistant  Secretary 
MRS.  W.  T.  LARIMER,  Assistant  Secretary 


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An  ijistoriral  g>ketrl| 

THE  Presbyterian  Church,  U.  S.  A.,  be- 
gan missionary  work  among  the  Negroes 
of  the  South  fully  a year  before  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War.  As  early  as  1864  two 
committees  were  at  work  under  the  direction 
of  the  General  Assembly  (0.  S.)  one  with 
headquarters  at  Indianapolis,  the  other  at 
Philadelphia.  In  May  1865  the  General  As- 
sembly at  its  meeting  in  Pittsburgh  united 
these  under  the  title,  “The  General  Assem- 
bly’s Committee  on  Freedmen.”  By  order  of 
this  same  Assembly  the  committee  met  and 
was  organized  on  June  22,  1865  in  the  lecture 
room  of  the  First  Church,  Pittsburgh.  In 
1868,  however,  the  Freedmen’s  Department  of 
the  Presbyterian  Committee  of  Home  Mis- 
sions (N.  S.)  began  a similar  work  with 
headquarters  in  New  York.  At  the  reunion 
of  the  two  branches  of  the  church,  the  old  and 
the  new  school,  this  department,  which  had 
been  in  existence  only  two  years,  and  the 
department  in  Pittsburgh  were  consolidated, 
and  a new  committee  was  appointed.  This 
committee  was  organized  by  direction  of  the 
reunited  General  Assembly  in  Pittsburgh  on 
June  10,  1870,  and  continued  without  change 
of  plan  or  organization  for  twelve  years. 
Problems  arising,  however,  from  the  owner- 
ship of  property  and  from  the  handling  of 
bequests  indicated  that  some  change  was 
necessary;  consequently  in  1882  at  Spring- 
field,  Illinois,  the  General  Assembly  sanctioned 
a change  and  on  September  16  of  the  same 
year  the  committee  obtained  a charter  and 
became  a corporate  body,  The  Board  of  Mis- 
sions for  Freedmen  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  U.  S.  A. 


3 


HELP  FROM  THE  WOMEN’S  MISSIONARY 
SOCIETIES 

In  1884  the  Assembly  recommended  that  the 
Women’s  Executive  Committee  of  Home  Mis- 
sions, afterwards  the  Woman’s  Board  of  Home 
Missions,  permit  societies  under  its  care  to 
contribute,  if  they  so  wished,  to  the  cause  of 
the  Freedmen.  When,  the  following  May, 
1885,  $3,010.58  were  reported  as  contributed 
by  these  societies,  the  General  Assembly 
adopted  unanimously  the  following  resolution: 
“That  in  view  of  the  success  which  has 
already  attended  the  organization  of  a 
Women’s  Department  for  Freedmen, 
under  the  Women’s  Executive  Committee 
of  Home  Missions,  and  of  the  pressing 
demand  for  labor  within  the  sphere 
marked  out  for  this  department  it  be 
affectionately  urged  upon  all  the  Wom- 
en’s Home  Missionary  Societies  of  our 
Church  to  give  this  work  a place  in  their 
sympathies,  their  prayers  and  their 
benefactions.” 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  Women’s  De- 
partment of  the  Freedmen’s  Board.  While 
the  action  of  the  Assembly  only  recommended 
that  the  Women’s  Societies  be  permitted  to 
contribute  according  to  their  pleasure  to  the 
Freedmen’s  work,  these  societies  have  for 
thirty  years  very  generously  encouraged  the 
efforts  of  the  Board.  Their  contributions  and 
their  interest  in  the  work  for  the  Negro  have 
grown  steadily  from  year  to  year.  The  money 
received  from  the  women’s  missionary  so- 
cieties goes  in  the  main  to  the  support  of 
teachers  and  the  maintenance  of  school  work. 

In  May,  1923,  the  General  Assembly  in  ses- 
sion at  Indianapolis,  Indiana,  adopted  the  re- 
port of  the  Committee  on  Reorganization  and 
Consolidation  of  the  Boards.  By  the  terms  of 
the  consolidation,  the  Board  of  Missions  for 
Freedmen  became  a holding  corporation,  the 

4 


actual  work  previously  carried  on  by  that 
Board  becoming  a part  of  the  work  of  the 
Board  of  National  Missions  under  the  Division 
of  Missions  for  Colored  People.  The  head- 
quarters of  this  Division  at  507-511  Bessemer 
Building,  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania. 


tKpapmtfiibiUltpa 

THE  FIELD 

PRESENT  NEGRO  POPULATION 
Based  on  the  United  States  Census  of  1920 


Alabama  900,652 

Arkansas  472,220 

Delaware  30,335 

Dist.  Columbia  109,966 

Florida  329,487 

Georgia  1,206,365 

Kentucky  235,938 

Louisiana  700,257 

Mississippi  935,184 

Maryland  244,479 

Missouri  178,241 

North  Carolina  763,407 

South  Carolina  864,719 

Oklahoma  149,408 

Tennessee  451,758 

Texas  741,694 

Virginia  690,017 

West  Virginia  86,345 

Total  in  S.  States 8,912,000 

Total  in  N.  States 1,472,000 


In  connection  with  the  study  of  distribution 
it  will  be  interesting  to  note  the  education  of 
the  White  and  the  Negro  child  of  school  age. 

S 


ANNUAL  EXPENDITURES  BY  STATES 
FOR  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 


Whites 

Negroes 

Alabama  

$15.80 

$ 3.00 

Arkansas  

13.15 

6.85 

Delaware  

20.00 

12.00 

Florida  

30.00 

5.75 

Georgia  

16.31 

2.83 

Kentucky  

10.29 

9.46 

Louisiana  

25.37 

3.49 

Maryland  

22.09 

10.52 

Mississippi  

18.12 

3.91 

North  Carolina  ... 

15.37 

5.83 

Missouri  

22.24 

19.40 

Oklahoma  

31.59 

14.05 

South  Carolina  ... 

19.33 

2.06 

Tennessee  

18.05 

10.43 

Texas  

19.01 

13.16 

Virginia  

20.55 

5.59 

The  Board  of  National  Missions  is  responsi- 
ble for  its  share  of  work  among  the  nine 
million  Negroes  of  the  South  and  the  one- 
and-a-half  million  of  the  Northern  States. 

* * * 

THE  TASK 

In  the  North  the  Presbyterian  Church  over- 
sees 31  new  churches  and  missions  for  Ne- 
groes which  have  been  organized  by  the 
Board  since  1914. 

In  the  South  this  Division  educates  preach- 
ers and  teachers,  maintains  ministers  in  their 
work  and  teachers  in  their  schools,  repairs 
churches,  manses,  and  builds  school  houses, 
seminaries,  academies,  looks  after  the  condi- 
tion of  buildings,  and  orders  all  repairs  and 
extensions,  appoints  instructors,  provides  all 
necessary  utensils  and  furnishings  for  the 
boarding  department,  manages  the  various  in- 
stitutions of  learning,  receives  monthly  finan- 
cial statements  for  all  schools,  and  audits  all 
bills. 


6 


IfBUltH 

PAST  ACCOMPLISHMENTS 

Out  of  confusion,  ignorance,  and  poverty, 
there  has  arisen  a system  of  educational  and 
evangelistic  work  that  commands  the  atten- 
tion and  demands  the  support  of  the  entire 
Church.  Schools,  academies,  seminaries,  and 
one  large  university,  have  gathered  within 
their  walls  young  men  and  young  women  to 
the  number  of  more  than  500,000  who  are 
brought  under  religious  influence  and  are 
being  trained  in  the  ways  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  Congregations  have  been  gathered, 
and  churches  have  been  organized  until  now 
the  Division  has  under  its  watch  and  care  530 
churches  and  missions  containing  39,932  mem- 
bers, 136  day  schools  with  18,765  pupils. 
Church  buildings  have  been  repaired  and  prop- 
erty valued  at  $553,650.00  secured  for  the  use 
of  churches.  School  property  is  estimated 
as  worth  about  $3,000,000.00.  Funds  per- 
manently invested  for  the  use  of  the  work 
amount  to  $968,934.26. 

* * * 

PRESENT  EFFORT 

1.  In  Respect  to  Churches 

There  are  now  four  colored  synods  covering 
the  work  under  the  care  of  the  Board, — At- 
lantic, Catawba,  Canadian,  and  East  Ten- 
nessee. Atlantic  Synod  has  five  presbyteries, 
viz;  Atlantic,  Fairfield,  and  McClelland,  which 
are  in  South  Carolina;  Hodge  and  Knox  in 
Georgia.  Knox  Presbytery  takes  in  also  sev- 
eral churches  that  are  in  Florida.  Catawba 
Synod  has  four  presbyteries,  viz;  Cape  Fear, 
Catawba,  and  Yadkin,  which  are  in  North 
Carolina  and  Southern  Virginia  in  the  south- 
ern part  of  Virginia.  Canadian  Synod  has 
three  presbyteries,  viz;  Kiamichi  and  Rendall 

7 


which  are  in  Oklahoma,  and  White  River 
in  Arkansas.  East  Tennessee  has  three  pres- 
byteries, viz;  Birmingham,  which  takes  in 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  some  churches  in 
Tennessee,  and  Le  Vere  and  Rogersville,  both 
in  Tennessee.  Rogersville  takes  in  also  two 
churches  in  western  North  Carolina. 

The  one  additional  colored  presbytery,  Lin- 
coln, in  the  Synod  of  Kentucky,  brings  the 
total  of  colored  presbyteries  to  sixteen.  With 
the  exception  of  five  white  men  in  charge 
severally  of  four  girls’  seminaries  and  one 
co-educational  boarding  school,  all  the  min- 
isters in  these  sixteen  presbyteries  are  col- 
ored. In  all,  251  Presbyterian  ministers  are 
working  among  Negroes.  Each  year  the 
churches  receive  on  an  average  3,500  mem- 
bers on  confession  of  faith,  an  increase  of 
about  9 per  cent. 

According  to  the  annual  reports  of  the 
ministers  working  under  the  Division  of  Mis- 
sions for  Colored  People,  the  people  on  the 
field  gave  this  year  for  church  work  includ- 
ing that  for  buildings,  repairs,  contingent  ex- 
penses and  ministerial  support  $244,114.51.  In 
addition  the  churches  under  the  Board  con- 
tributed $14,697.08  for  benevolences. 


2.  In  Respect  to  Schools 

The  Presbyterian  church  maintains  137 
schools  for  Negroes  classified  as  follows: 

(a)  Two  schools  for  men:  Johnson  C.  Smith 
University  at  Charlotte,  N.  C.,  and  Har- 
bison  Agricultural  college,  at  Irmo,  S.  C. 
The  professors  in  these  schools  are  all 
colored  men. 

(b)  Five  seminaries  for  girls  only:  Scotia  at 
Concord,  N.  C.;  Ingleside  at  Burkeville, 
Va.;  Mary  Holmes  at  West  Point,  Miss.; 
Barber  Memorial  at  Anniston,  Ala.;  and 
Mary  Allen  at  Crockett,  Texas. 

8 


The  first  four  of  these  seminaries  are 
presided  over  by  white  ministers,  and  most 
of  the  teachers  are  white.  Mary  Allen  alone 
has  a colored  president,  and  colored  faculty 
members.  The  total  enrollment  at  these 
five  schools  is  more  than  one  thousand. 

(c)  Twenty-one  co-educational  boarding 
schools  as  follows: 

Andrew  Robertson  Institute,  Aiken,  S.  C. 
Albion  Academy,  Franklinton,  N.  C. 

Alice  Lee  Elliott  Memorial,  Valliant, 
Okla. 

Arkadelphia  Academy,  Arkadelphia,  Ark. 
Boggs  Academy,  Keysville,  Ga. 

Bowling  Green  Academy,  Bowling  Green, 
Ky. 

Brainerd  Institute,  Chester,  S.  C. 
Coulter  Memorial  Academy,  Cheraw,  S.  C. 
Cotton  Plant  Academy,  Cotton  Plant,  Ark 
Emerson  Industrial  Institute,  Blackville, 
S.  C. 

Fee  Memorial  Institute,  Nicholasvillc, 

Ky. 

Gillespie  Normal,  Cordele,  Ga. 

Haines  Industrial,  Augusta,  Ga. 

Hot  Springs  School,  Hot  Springs,  Ark. 
Kendall  Institute,  Sumter,  S.  C. 

Mary  Potter  Memorial,  Oxford,  N.  C. 
Monticello  Academy,  Monticello,  Ark. 
Redstone  Academy,  Lumberton,  N.  C. 
Richard  Allen  Institute,  Pine  Bluff,  Ark. 
Selden  Institute,  Brunswick,  Ga. 

Swift  Memorial  College,  Rogersville, 
Tenn. 

Of  these  Brainerd  Institute,  alone,  has  a 
white  president. 

(d)  Other  schools  to  the  number  of  109, 
classified  as  institutes,  academies,  and 
church  schools.  These  are  all  in  charge 
of  colored  ministers  and  teachers. 

In  these  schools  18,765  children  are 
enrolled.  The  Bible  and  the  Shorter 

9 


Catechism  are  everywhere  required 
studies.  Only  Christian  teachers  are  em- 
ployed; usually  they  are  Presbyterians. 

In  all  the  larger  schools  and  in  as  many  of 
the  smaller  ones  as  the  budget  will  allow 
industrial  training  is  offered.  At  Johnson  C. 
Smith  instruction  is  given  in  carpentry,  ma- 
sonry, printing,  plumbing,  shoemaking,  tailor- 
ing, etc.  At  Harbison  the  boys  are  taught 
intensive  farming;  in  Scotia,  Ingleside,  Mary 
Allen,  Mary  Holmes,  and  Barber  Memorial,  the 
girls  are  trained  in  cooking,  sewing,  and  gen- 
eral housekeeping.  Many  of  the  co-educa- 
tional  schools  have  farms  attached  where  the 
boys  may  do  practical  farming.  The  crops 
go  to  the  support  of  the  school. 

* * * 

IN  RESPECT  TO  COMMUNITY  SERVICE 

For  the  purpose  of  assisting  worthy  colored 
families  one  thousand  acres  of  land  have  been 
purchased  at  Keysville,  Georgia,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Boggs  Academy,  and  four  thou- 
sand acres  at  Irmo,  S.  C„  near  Harbison  Col- 
lege. This  land  is  divided  into  small  farms 
of  from  ten  to  forty  acres  each.  These  farms 
are  then  sold  to  respectable  Negro  men  of 
families,  Presbyterians  preferred,  at  fair 
prices  and  on  easy  terms.  To  assist  pur- 
chasers in  building  houses,  buying  tools  and 
seed,  cash  advances  are  made  to  these  Negro 
men  with  the  understanding  that  the  money 
is  to  be  repaid  with  a fair  rate  of  interest  out 
of  the  annual  savings  of  the  farms.  Capable 
superintendents  are  employed  to  direct  the 
purchasers  in  their  work  so  that  the  farmers 
may  in  the  end  own  their  own  land.  Thus 
every  effort  is  made  to  build  communities 
sound  both  morally  and  industrially.  Many 
of  these  tenants  are  helpful  in  the  churches. 
Their  children  attend  the  schools.  Their 
farms  and  homes  are  attractive.  In  every 
way  the  families  are  a credit  to  their  com- 
munities. 


10 


Srsnums 

IN  FUNDS 

When  one  compares  the  work  done  with  the 
money  expended  one  soon  realizes  that  few 
mission  fields  cost  so  little  as  the  field  of 
colored  work,  and  that  in  few  places  does  a 
little  go  so  far.  The  average  aid  granted  a 
minister  is  about  $500  a year.  The  average 
salary  of  a colored  teacher  is  about  $35  a 
month.  It  should  be  at  least  $50.  Terms  run 
from  six  to  eight  months. 

Sunday  Schools  that  give  $25  a year  or 
more  may  receive  a share  certificate  in  one 
of  the  Negro  schools.  Lincoln’s  Day  Pro- 
grams will  be  furnished  without  charge  to  all 
Sunday  Schools  which  will  make  an  offering 
for  the  colored  work.  Young  People’s  So- 
cieties are  urged  to  set  aside  one  evening 
each  year  to  the  consideration  of  this  work 
and  to  make  an  offering  toward  it. 

Scholarships  in  Johnson  C.  Smith  Univer- 
sity, the  Seminaries,  and  co-educational 
schools  are  $100  a year.  A half  scholarship 
costs  $50.  * * * 

IN  SERVICE 

The  five  schools  where  there  are  white  fac- 
ulties offer  excellent  opportunity  for  young 
people  to  engage  in  the  work  of  the  King- 
dom. The  transformations  both  in  the  char- 
acter and  the  appearance  of  the  pupils  is  a 
constant  source  of  joy  and  inspiration  to  the 
teachers.  * * * 

IN  PRAYER 

For  the  work  as  carried  on  through  this 
agency  special  reliance  is  put  upon  the  pray- 
ers of  the  hosts  of  God’s  people,  upon  the 
loving  interest  and  co-operation  of  the  thou- 
sands of  Presbyterians  in  the  faithful  and  de- 
voted service  of  the  726  missionaries,  min- 
isters, and  teachers. 


11 


Issued  by  the  Division  of  Missions  for  Colored 
People  of  the 

BOARD  OF  NATIONAL  MISSIONS  OF  THE 
PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  THE 
U.  S.  A., 

507-511  Bessemer  Bldg.,  Pittsburgh,  Penna. 


